Rationale for Study:
Nationwide, less than fifty percent of engineering freshmen persist to earn an undergraduate engineering degree, with at least half of this attrition occurring during the first year. Equally discouraging is the low number of female and minority graduates, especially at a time when engineering schools are emphasizing the recruitment of more "underrepresented" students. For 1997, only 18.7 percent of engineering graduates were female and 10.9 percent were underrepresented minorities, the highest levels yet for these two populations. To address the engineering retention problem requires improved measurement and assessment methodologies. The introduction of the new engineering accreditation criteria, EC-2000, directs a need for better methods and metrics to assess engineering students and programs.

Preliminary findings suggest that student attitudes may vary significantly from institution to institution depending on the geographic location of the student, the type of institution he/she is attending, the knowledge base of the students, etc. These variations in student attitudes across institutions may result in different relationships with respect to both attrition and success in engineering. To thoroughly address these issues, we are conducting a multi-institution longitudinal attitude study. The focus of this 3-year study involves the following:

  1. Extending our freshman engineering attitudinal study to a large population of engineering programs to identify pertinent factors that affect students’ attitudes and retention. (Our earlier studies found that at least half of engineering attrition occurs at this level.) Student's attitudes will be measured prior to beginning their first year studies and over the course of their first year to determine how:
    2. i) attitudes differ among gender and ethnicity, ii) certain programmatic initiatives impact these attitudes, and iii) attitudes may be correlated with retention and performance.
  2. Moving the study into the sophomore and junior years, where the remaining attrition occurs and where differences associated with gender and ethnicity may become more magnified. Building upon our successes with the freshman in-strument, we are currently developing and testing companion sophomore and junior attitudinal postsurveys that will track students’ attitudes as they matriculate through their undergraduate program. Special emphasis is being placed on incorporating EC-2000 outcomes.
  3. Developing a web-based system for the survey instruments that will permit other interested engineering school to participate. The web system will automate the process by enabling engineering students from different schools take the survey ‘on-line,’ analyze the data automatically, and report results back to the student’s engineering school. Faculty will also be able to receive a summary of their school’s results.
This research and the resulting new instruments will have a major impact on the participating schools. Prior research results have helped develop programs aimed at addressing issues related to attrition, and improving the educational experiences of women and minority students. In addition, engineering schools can use the resulting instruments, through their availability on the web, as part of their EC-2000 preparation efforts and towards improvement of their educational programs.
In Brief

Retention of undergraduate engineering students remains a nationwide problem, and, in combination with the difficulties of attracting more prospective students to the field, contributes to the current eight-year period of stagnation in the number of engineering graduates. To address the engineering retention problem requires improved measurement and assessment methodologies. The introduction of the new engineering accreditation criteria, EC-2000, directs a need for better methods and metrics to assess engineering students and programs.

We are conducting a multi-institution longitudinal 3-year study that addresses two major issues in engineering education:

  1. To better understand the problem of engineering attrition including its causes and dimensions. Specifically, we are examining:
    • How attitudes differ among student cohorts, particularly those of gender and ethnicity;
    • How they are impacted by certain programmatic initiatives; and
    • The extent to which these attitudes are correlated with retention and performance

  2. To develop more effective means of assessing engineering students and programs. We have developed and are developing a series of closed form questionnaires to assess engineering student experiences as they matriculate through their engineering studies. By tracking students throughout their freshman, sophomore and junior year, we will capture the following:
    • Attitudes about the field of engineering and the reasons they chose to study engineering
    • Self-Assessed confidence in students' background knowledge and skills
    • Self-Assessed competence toward achievement of EC 2000 outcome criteria
The Questionnaires

Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitudes Pre-Survey© Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitudes Post-Survey©
  • 13 attitudes measures (same as those in the pre-survey)
  • Additional EC 2000 outcomes
  • Formats Available:
    Scannable format (forms are return to UTEP for scanning and analysis)
    Web-based (students take questionnaire on-line)
  • Sample questionnaire

Sophomore Engineering Outcomes Survey
  • Currently under development

Junior Engineering Outcomes Survey

  • Currently under development

What Your Institution Receives for Joining the Study

With each questionnaire administration

  1. We will scan (if using the scannable format) the questionnaires
  2. Analyze the data with respect to the objectives of the study and the type of questionnaire
  3. Provide your institution with a summary report of the findings for that particular questionnaire

    Sample freshman-pre questionnaire report
  4. Provide a diskette containing your school’s raw data and summarized data (based on the measures for the questionnaire), and
  5. Return the original questionnaires (if using the scannable format)

Periodically institutions will receive

  1. Trend analysis of their schools
  2. Benchmarks of your data with the average of all participating schools
  3. Summaries/papers of the collective findings of the study
Other Assessment/Evaluation Sites
Bill Trochim's Center for Social Research Methods
Evaluation Center at Western Michigan
Internet Resources for Institutional Research
Dr. Helen Barrett's favorite links on Alternative Assessment & Electronic Portfolios
CRESST Assessment Glossary
American Association for Higher Education Assessment Forum
Rubrics, Evaluations, Assessments and Web Design Considerations
Learning Connection: Resources
Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG)
Program Development and Evaluation Unit
ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education
Gateway
SUCEED Coalition
Synthesis Engineering Education Coalition
ABET Assessment Sites
ABET Homepage
 Georgia Tech University
Ohio State University
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Harvey Mudd College
Michigan State University
Montana State University